Webmaster
note: It's quite amazing what snippets one can find in a
deep
search on Google for the term "Gaspee". While we don't necessarily
agree
with this author's line of
reasoning, we will strive to present a balanced view of the Gaspee
Affair at all times...warts and all.

Freedom .... (or
Can
the Gaspee Affair be compared to the present day war on drugs?)

Lieutenant William Dudingston served the Royal Navy well. And
by so
doing, brought on what might be called a preliminary action of the
American
Revolution in the year 1772. With admirable vigilance, Dudingston
spotted,
pursued, and captured smugglers who operated among the many tricky
channels
and rocky coves of Rhode Island Narragansett Bay. And served himself
well,
too. When his swift patrol ship, the revenue cutter Gaspee,
succeeded
in catching one of the smugglers, and the victim's goods were sold
after
court action, Lieutenant Dudingston got a handsome share of the
proceeds.
He was fierce toward American merchantmen who dared bring in such goods
as molasses from the French West Indies. For he was determined to force
obedience to the Acts of Trade, which sought to keep colonial business
within the confines of the British mercantile system. And he was
equally
fierce toward skippers of whatever law-abiding ships he stopped and
inspected
- for who knew what they might be carrying. The colonists had begun to
demonstrate a rebellious mood, and the Navy must be on the alert.

This officiousness was intolerable for such enterprising
merchants
as
John Brown of Providence. His firm Nicholas Brown and Company, had been
doing business in many parts of the world for the better part of the
century.
His ships, and those of other Rhode Islanders, would one day reach
China
and the East Indies and were presently plying between Europe, Africa
and
the West Indies. If the cargo from Africa often consisted of slaves,
and
if the cargo from the Antilles was not always British produced - wasn't
that the way fortunes were made?

On the afternoon of June 9, 1772, Lieutenant Dudingston
pressed his
luck a bit to far when chasing a smuggler close to shore: he ran
aground
on a sand pit below Providence. Hearing of the Gaspee's
accident,
John Brown recalled how Rhode Islanders had wrecked another customs
boat
some four years earlier. And, collecting a band of armed men ready for
any action against the crown, he rowed out to the helpless ship,
wounded
the lieutenant and set the Gaspee ablaze.

Somehow the culprits could not be found, even though the
outraged
British
cabinet demanded that the offenders be brought to justice they offered
a 500 pound reward. Parliament, for its part, had declared 4 months
before
that setting fire to a Navy vessel was a treasonous crime, punishable
by
death. The investigation accomplished nothing, besides persuading many
Americans, by the severity of its language, that England was determined
to put a noose around the neck of all who believed in freedom.

The Gaspee assault was but a prelude to many other
battles,
including
the one on April 19, 1775, at Concord and Lexington which is generally
treated as the opening engagement of the American Revolution. This
sounds
very much like the drug war to me. What do you think?